Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner on Monday avoided questions about his ties to a troubled nursing home chain, while a federal trial in Florida began hearing evidence on claims that Rauner’s old private equity firm participated in a scheme to avoid liability for patient deaths.

At the trial in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, plaintiff attorneys played videotaped deposition testimony from an elderly graphic artist with no nursing home experience who expressed bewilderment over how he came to be listed as the sole shareholder of a company that bought nursing home chain Trans Healthcare Inc. as it was in financial freefall in 2006.

The testimony of Saacks is a key part of a complicated trial centered on claims that Rauner’s GTCR participated in a fraudulent scheme to avoid liability for a string of deaths at nursing homes run by Trans Healthcare. Lawyers representing estates in related wrongful death lawsuits cases contend Saacks was a pawn and that New York-based business associates of GTCR created a shell company that shielded both firms from judgments topping $1 billion.

The plaintiff attorneys contend most of the valuable assets of Trans Healthcare were shifted to a separate holding company while the liabilities were shifted to yet another firm that Saacks came to own.

Rauner, who headed GTCR for more than two decades before leaving to run for governor, is not a defendant in the bankruptcy case. However, GTCR is a defendant along with Edgar Jannotta Jr., a former GTCR partner who was the investment firm’s point person at Trans Healthcare.

Lawyers for GTCR and Jannotta contend the equity firm acted responsibly, never sought to avoid liability and is being targeted by plaintiff lawyers looking for deep pockets to satisfy the lawsuit judgments.

As Bruce Rauner enters the home stretch of his run for Illinois governor, 1,000 miles away in Tampa, Fla., a federal bankruptcy trial opens Monday to weigh allegations that the investment firm he ran participated in a fraudulent scheme to avoid liability for a string of deaths at nursing homes.

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As Bruce Rauner enters the home stretch of his run for Illinois governor, 1,000 miles away in Tampa, Fla., a federal bankruptcy trial opens Monday to weigh allegations that the investment firm he ran participated in a fraudulent scheme to avoid liability for a string of deaths at nursing homes.

... (David Heinzmann and Bob Secter,)

Controversy over the nursing homes has hung for months over the campaign of Rauner, who has long insisted his involvement with the chain was minimal. In February, he told the Tribune that he hadn’t had much to do with Trans Healthcare after serving on its board for about a year when GTCR first launched the chain in 1998.

However, the Tribune reported in Monday that a court document in the bankruptcy case indicates Rauner still served on the Trans Healthcare board four years after the inception of the chain. What’s more, plaintiff’s attorneys allege that other documents filed under seal in the case demonstrate that the nursing home company was run right up until the transaction with Saacks by an investment committee of GTCR partners that included Rauner.

Campaigning Monday at a West Side church, Rauner called the deaths at the center of the case “a very unfortunate circumstance” but declined to respond directly to Tribune questions about the new information linking him more closely to the nursing home chain.

Businessman Bruce Rauner prepares for his term in office after winning the 2014 election.

“I hope and believe that there was no wrongdoing, no bad behavior,” he said. “The courts will sort out all the facts. I'm confident that no one at GTCR engaged in any inappropriate behavior.”

Not long after Rauner spoke in Chicago, lawyers in Tampa rolled the tape of Saacks for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Williamson, who is presiding over what is expected to be a two-week bench trial. Williamson may not rule on the fraud allegations before Election Day, when Rauner hopes to unseat Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.

On the taped interviews, recorded in 2012 and 2014, Saacks often sounded disoriented and confused about many questions posed to him by lawyers, sometimes flashing a sense of humor about his level of ignorance of a company he purportedly owned. In the latter of the interviews, Saacks was seated in a wheelchair and wearing a hospital gown.

Heavyset and wearing a white beard that flowed to the middle of his torso, Saacks recalled having a few discussions about buying computer equipment with a lawyer he knew socially. That lawyer, Leonard Grunstein, is a business associate of New York real estate investor Rubin Schron who was a partner with GTCR in the nursing home chain.

Saacks said he had never done business with Trans Healthcare’s New York investors, other than creating stationery logos and real estate sign designs for Schron.

Saacks said as far as he knew the deal for him to buy computers never went through. He said he never received any computers and he’s never seen any money from the business. However, Brett Baker, a lawyer for the firm that handled the stock sale to Saacks, has testified in a deposition that Saacks was paid cash to sign closing documents, something Baker said he raised concerns about at the time with his superiors because it was so unusual.

As far as the company he was alleged to have purchased, Saacks said, “I’ve never heard of it. Trans Health? It doesn’t register....”

He added: “I don’t know if I actually purchased it.”

The trial began Monday morning with plaintiff lawyers calling to the stand a financial fraud expert who had studied GTCR’s conduct as their paid expert witness. James Feltman, of Chicago-based Mesirow Financial Consulting, testified that corporate records show GTCR controlled all major decisions at Trans Healthcare both through Jannotta and GTCR’s own investment committee.

GTCR’s defense is being led by Kirkland & Ellis partner Brian Sieve, who challenged Feltman’s assertions at every turn.

Sieve argued that GTCR took several measures to try to save Trans Healthcare when it foundered, including an injection of millions of dollars of new cash, but ultimately lost money. Sieve and other lawyers for the defendants declined to comment outside the courtroom.